Report on BMW 320D YTB 409 GP 15 February 2010
I took delivery of the vehicle on the 12th of November 2009 from Leo Haese Hatfield South Africa
About a week after that a friend pointed out the light spot on the back right hand side door. I realized I have never seen this as the car was parked in a darkish show room where I took it from at 5 PM. From there I drove to my house and parked in the garage, where for the next 2 weeks it was to work and back and at work inside the under roof parking.
I phone BMW and told them about the mark on the back door, it is a circle in the middle of the door with a ± 30 cm radius that is much lighter then the rest of the car and door. I was asked to bring the car in and they will have a look, this was about 2 to 3 weeks before Christmas in December 2009.
The Sales person had a look and said he will have to launch a factory warranty call for them to sort out the problem, but this will however only happen in 2010 as BMW is closed until then. At this stage my car had ± 2500 km on the clock.
I took the car back the first week in January for the factory representative to come and have a look. I was asked to come fetch my car the next day, and it was reported to me that they can see there is something wrong and they will come back to us with a solution. A week or 2 went past and I phoned them to ask what would be done about the problem, I also told them that I was going on honeymoon from the 23d of January to the 1st of February, and would like the car to be fixed before that.
I was then asked to bring my car back in on the 18th to 22nd of January, they then told me they are going to fit a new door to see if the colours matched, but for this it has to go to the panel beater to strip the trimmings on the door. I told them I cannot understand why the car needs to go to the panel beater as they can fit the blank door at the dealer, to see if the colours matched. They then said ok they will have the door fitted at the dealer (I am not sure if this actually happened ). I got my car back and was told they are going to re-paint the door, I told them I wasn’t happy as it is a brand new car and I cant not see how they want to re-paint it. If I ever want to sell it, it will lose value but they assured me the car will be 100 % when I get it back.
I took the car back to them on the 9th of February to do what that said they will do, I got the car back on the 11th of February and was not happy.
The car was dirty and full of polish marks, even the dash board was full of polish marks and my car has a disgusting smell of thinners, on close inspection I have seen that they did not even remove the door when they re-painted it as there is tape marks all over the entire door, as well as paint dripping on the door handle, there is also still polish on the drive side door handle.
The paint was polished at the back door that they re-painted, to such an extent that on some places the paint was polished off and only the undercoat is visible. This is also visible at the back light of the car, and there was not a paint problem there at all.
I phoned BMW once again to say I wasn’t happy and they must do something. The response I got was that they did what they could and if I have any more problems I must take it up with BMW South-Africa.
This then made me think if they ever did launch a factory warranty claim, as I was told they did, or if they as a dealer just wanted to sort out the problem internally.
On Friday the 12th of February 2010 i phone BMW South-Arfrica to find out what they say about the problem i am having according to them there was not Factory claim against my car
The second problem with the car is there is allot of wind noise coming from the doors and the windows, when the car went in the first time for them to look at the paint problem they assured me they will also then look at the window / door problem. I was told the door railing was bend and this happened when they put the smash and grab on the car, and BMW will replace it as they had the smash and grab put on the car. Since then the story has changed to the windows not closing properly and the mirrors making a noise, they also said they will fix the windows, this never happened the car is still making the same noise. I know it is a problem as the car they gave me on loan is also a 320 D and did not have this noise.
On Tuesday the 22nd of February the car had to go for a service, and once again go back to BMW to fix the wind noise as well as fix the bad spray job.(spray job no 2)
On that morning to make things worse my car did not want to start, after the 3d try i got the car to start but the engine warring light came on. I switched the car off and started it again and the light was gone, as i booked the car in i asked them to look at this problem, i was phoned back late that afternoon to say they are still looking for the problem.
The next morning the booking lady phoned me and said ok. They have replaced power steering brackets as it was leaking and was loose ( this on a car with now 15 000 km on the clock), they then also reset the door latches for the door to close better ( read all about the wind noise problem above ) then they charged the battery and rest the computer to fix the engine problem , i said to them it does not make any sense to me i want the workshop manager to phone me. He phone me in about an hour’s time and told me the following, because the car was driven hard and the brakes got hot ( the previous day) the computer protected the car and that’s why it did not start. Now i know a bit about cars and this is not possible, i told him i do not believe this, in response they then said ok they will put the car back on the computer and show me.
I phone BMW Melyn and spoke to Niel, a technical person, he then advised me that firstly BMW does not have such a system built into any care, if the car finds the brakes hot or a engine problem it will warn you straight away, not the next day. And it WILL NOT cause the car NOT to start.
The car has now gone for the 3d spray job, this decision was made by the dealer principal (ROELF), as they were not happy with the second spray job
I still don’t have my car back, and frankly i don’t want it back, it is a brand new car that did not want to start , and has 3 layers of paint on the back door of my car.
The story they told me about the engine has changed 3 times now, the last one is that the spark plugs was dirty and they had to replace them, now a Diesel car does not have spark plugs , it has Glow plugs..
I spent ± R380 000 on a new car as I had problems with my second hand 120 I BMW, and this car was with them at least 3 times a month to get fixed. This was the reason for buying a brand new car. Now I still have a car with problems, a bad paint job and it has been back at least 6 times sinpaid for a new car and that is what I want.
___________________________
Emil Henrico
[email protected]
I took delivery of the vehicle on the 12th of November 2009 from Leo Haese Hatfield South Africa
About a week after that a friend pointed out the light spot on the back right hand side door. I realized I have never seen this as the car was parked in a darkish show room where I took it from at 5 PM. From there I drove to my house and parked in the garage, where for the next 2 weeks it was to work and back and at work inside the under roof parking.
I phone BMW and told them about the mark on the back door, it is a circle in the middle of the door with a ± 30 cm radius that is much lighter then the rest of the car and door. I was asked to bring the car in and they will have a look, this was about 2 to 3 weeks before Christmas in December 2009.
The Sales person had a look and said he will have to launch a factory warranty call for them to sort out the problem, but this will however only happen in 2010 as BMW is closed until then. At this stage my car had ± 2500 km on the clock.
I took the car back the first week in January for the factory representative to come and have a look. I was asked to come fetch my car the next day, and it was reported to me that they can see there is something wrong and they will come back to us with a solution. A week or 2 went past and I phoned them to ask what would be done about the problem, I also told them that I was going on honeymoon from the 23d of January to the 1st of February, and would like the car to be fixed before that.
I was then asked to bring my car back in on the 18th to 22nd of January, they then told me they are going to fit a new door to see if the colours matched, but for this it has to go to the panel beater to strip the trimmings on the door. I told them I cannot understand why the car needs to go to the panel beater as they can fit the blank door at the dealer, to see if the colours matched. They then said ok they will have the door fitted at the dealer (I am not sure if this actually happened ). I got my car back and was told they are going to re-paint the door, I told them I wasn’t happy as it is a brand new car and I cant not see how they want to re-paint it. If I ever want to sell it, it will lose value but they assured me the car will be 100 % when I get it back.
I took the car back to them on the 9th of February to do what that said they will do, I got the car back on the 11th of February and was not happy.
The car was dirty and full of polish marks, even the dash board was full of polish marks and my car has a disgusting smell of thinners, on close inspection I have seen that they did not even remove the door when they re-painted it as there is tape marks all over the entire door, as well as paint dripping on the door handle, there is also still polish on the drive side door handle.
The paint was polished at the back door that they re-painted, to such an extent that on some places the paint was polished off and only the undercoat is visible. This is also visible at the back light of the car, and there was not a paint problem there at all.
I phoned BMW once again to say I wasn’t happy and they must do something. The response I got was that they did what they could and if I have any more problems I must take it up with BMW South-Africa.
This then made me think if they ever did launch a factory warranty claim, as I was told they did, or if they as a dealer just wanted to sort out the problem internally.
On Friday the 12th of February 2010 i phone BMW South-Arfrica to find out what they say about the problem i am having according to them there was not Factory claim against my car
The second problem with the car is there is allot of wind noise coming from the doors and the windows, when the car went in the first time for them to look at the paint problem they assured me they will also then look at the window / door problem. I was told the door railing was bend and this happened when they put the smash and grab on the car, and BMW will replace it as they had the smash and grab put on the car. Since then the story has changed to the windows not closing properly and the mirrors making a noise, they also said they will fix the windows, this never happened the car is still making the same noise. I know it is a problem as the car they gave me on loan is also a 320 D and did not have this noise.
On Tuesday the 22nd of February the car had to go for a service, and once again go back to BMW to fix the wind noise as well as fix the bad spray job.(spray job no 2)
On that morning to make things worse my car did not want to start, after the 3d try i got the car to start but the engine warring light came on. I switched the car off and started it again and the light was gone, as i booked the car in i asked them to look at this problem, i was phoned back late that afternoon to say they are still looking for the problem.
The next morning the booking lady phoned me and said ok. They have replaced power steering brackets as it was leaking and was loose ( this on a car with now 15 000 km on the clock), they then also reset the door latches for the door to close better ( read all about the wind noise problem above ) then they charged the battery and rest the computer to fix the engine problem , i said to them it does not make any sense to me i want the workshop manager to phone me. He phone me in about an hour’s time and told me the following, because the car was driven hard and the brakes got hot ( the previous day) the computer protected the car and that’s why it did not start. Now i know a bit about cars and this is not possible, i told him i do not believe this, in response they then said ok they will put the car back on the computer and show me.
I phone BMW Melyn and spoke to Niel, a technical person, he then advised me that firstly BMW does not have such a system built into any care, if the car finds the brakes hot or a engine problem it will warn you straight away, not the next day. And it WILL NOT cause the car NOT to start.
The car has now gone for the 3d spray job, this decision was made by the dealer principal (ROELF), as they were not happy with the second spray job
I still don’t have my car back, and frankly i don’t want it back, it is a brand new car that did not want to start , and has 3 layers of paint on the back door of my car.
The story they told me about the engine has changed 3 times now, the last one is that the spark plugs was dirty and they had to replace them, now a Diesel car does not have spark plugs , it has Glow plugs..
I spent ± R380 000 on a new car as I had problems with my second hand 120 I BMW, and this car was with them at least 3 times a month to get fixed. This was the reason for buying a brand new car. Now I still have a car with problems, a bad paint job and it has been back at least 6 times sinpaid for a new car and that is what I want.
___________________________
Emil Henrico
[email protected]
